Tuesday, June 28, 2011

This is a fun book for any child with lots of pictures and great review questions!

The classic story of David & Goliath is well-known and a favorite Bible story for many children because of David’s success despite all of the odds stacked against him. But…we usually only hear the story from one perspective. You may ask how many perspectives there are and I would too, but Dr. Gerald Mittmann has taken this story to a whole new level. If rocks could talk and feel, what would the rock that killed Goliath have to say? What story would that rock tell?

Smoothie Rock-A-Teller is the stone that was shaped and smoothed over time specifically for the purpose of being placed in David’s sling and killing Goliath.

I am always on the lookout for different ways to teach my children stories from the scriptures and I thought this book presented the story from a fun and intriguing perspective. Immediately after we read this book for the first time, my 4 year old was playing his own version of David and Goliath with his toy cars and I love to see that the story has made an impression on his mind.

Honestly, it took a while for me to warm up to this book. My 4 year old has insisted on reading it daily since we got it and at first I felt that this book was way beyond his comprehension. It is a long book for young children to sit through and much of the story confused K because it was from a different perspective. Smoothie gives everything his own names (ie people are “talking-walk-abouts”, sheep are “baa-baa-mini-cloud-walkers”, etc), and I found myself feeling the need to replace those names as I read with the names K is familiar with. Now that we’ve read it several times I no longer need to and he understands the story just fine. I think this book would be perfect for children around 6-8 years old who would be able to understand it even better.

My only other complaint is how random the text is…it is arranged sometimes confusingly, jumping all over the page and I often miss parts of the story and have to go back and figure out what order the paragraphs are supposed to go in.

All complaints aside, above all, this book is a wonderful reminder of God’s love for each of us and of His presence in our lives. This is a fun book for any child with lots of pictures and great review questions at the end of each chapter.

This book is written by Dr. Gerald Mittmann, published by Deep River Books, and is available for $12.99. ISBN 978-1-935265-78-8. To learn more, visitdeepriverbooks.com.

I’m so grateful to Bring It On Communications for the opportunity to review this book for free. To read more reviews like this one, go to Tell Us The Truth Reviews! I was provided with this book for free in exchange for my open and honest review. All opinions expressed in this review are mine.